Anime Music Videos

If you're an anime fan, and you use the internet, chances are you've come across one or two anime music videos (a.k.a AMVs). Like anime and music, some are purely entertainment, whereas others are made to create emotion or stand as a piece of art. Again, just like anime, there are countless AMVs that lack creativity and flair, but there are some that are simply outstanding. I don't know much about the history of AMVs. However, due to the practically infinite number of songs in the world and the large number of anime that exist, I do know that AMVs still have a lot of potential.

When browsing the Anime Music Videos website, I usually have one thing in mind, and that's to find an AMV for anime I like. Usually, I'll also try to find a song to match it, or vice-versa. As you might have already guessed, Naruto and Dragonball Z have an astonishing number of AMVs. I try not to watch DBZ videos because they're almost always bad quality. Also, one of my favourite bands, Biffy Clyro, only have one song on the AMV.org database, and it's a very poor DBZ one. Naruto fairs a little better. I've actually found a couple of decent Naruto AMVs, but I've found Naruto works better with multiple anime AMVs, rather than just being used on its own.

Then you get some that are just breathtaking. Jihaku has always stood as my favourite AMV, and I think that's unlikely to change. It's a mulitple anime AMV that uses Best of You by the Foo Fighters. Since they are my favourite band, it had already captured my interest. Another interesting thing about Jihaku is that it goes for the same style as the original music video for the song, and actually does an even better job of using the chosen style. What it does is try to inspire the viewer and tell them that even if there's pain in the world, life can still be beautiful. For me, it's quite poetic.

The AMV Hell series is probably the most popular multi anime AMV series to date. It has a rather huge reputation at AMV showings during anime conventions. I won't go into much detail because you'll probably already know how they work and such, but I will tell you this, if you value your sanity, don't watch AMV Hell 0.

Burning Up Devilman's Martian Successor Nadesico and a Rune Soldier

This Sunday I had the pleasure of watching four different anime that I probably would never have encountered if it weren't for my friend Hybridial. I met him for the first time on Sunday and we decided to go to his friend's flat and watch some anime. First of all, we watched the first volume of Burn Up Excess. Basically, it's about a group of people (mostly female of course) that are hired to act as a crime fighting/investigation team. So far it's been rather amusing. It made me giggle every so often. I'll probably pick it up at a later date.

After that we watched a Devilman OVA. It was essentially the same as Devilman Lady, except it was older, so you can imagine how aged it seems. Despite being rather gory, it made for some decent entertainment. It's not the kind of thing that I'll buy though. I may watch it again when I visit Hybridial another time.

Martian Successor Nadesico, volume 1, proved to be the highlight of the day. What I give it credit for is not the comedy (which is pretty good in its own right), but its ability to parody other mecha anime before they even aired. The most noticable parodies were of Neon Genesis Evangelion and Van Dread. From NGE, we have a whiney and annoying hero whose only useful attribute is being able to pilot his mecha well. From Van Dread, we have a girl who is constantly clinging to and , unintentionally, annoying the hell out of the hero. All I have to say is that if a hot girl started clinging to me, I sure as hell wouldn't tell her to get lost and constantly shout at her.

Lastly we moved onto Rune Soldier. It was pretty decent from what I saw. The comedy was pretty good, as expected, but something about the characters seems so typical, so I'll probably pick it up at a later date too.